The big catamaran of the fleet is in Málaga: 23.7 metres and up to 100 passengers. It is the one used for events.
In Málaga is the 23.7-metre catamaran, the highest-capacity boat in the fleet: it takes up to 100 passengers. It is the one used for events, company celebrations and groups that will not fit on an ordinary boat.
A catamaran that size has deck to spare for moving about, sitting down and eating without getting in each other's way, and it is very steady even with people who are not used to the sea.
For more than twelve passengers you have to book ahead and arrange the catering separately. It is not a trip you improvise on the day.
Three things, and none of them can be improvised. First, the date fixed well ahead, because a boat that size has no availability from one day to the next in season. Second, the catering, which is arranged separately and needs the exact number several days in advance.
Third is the passenger list. On a trip with a hundred people you have to know who is coming on board, and that means closing the list beforehand, not on the pontoon. It is the piece of paperwork that causes the most delay when it is left to the last minute.
Between twenty and thirty minutes from the first arrival to casting off, and that half hour comes out of the time on the water, it does not get added to it. A three-hour trip with a hundred people is two and a half hours of actual sailing.
The trick to making it work is to tell the group to arrive half an hour before departure, and at a specific point in the marina, not "at the marina". With a hundred people, a vague instruction turns into twenty phone calls.
The city makes far more sense from the water than from land. On the way out of the port you have La Farola, La Malagueta beach and, above it, the Gibralfaro hill with the castle outlined on top.
Eastwards the coast runs on through El Palo and Rincón de la Victoria; westwards, through Torremolinos and Benalmádena. For an event trip there is no need to go far: running round the bay and anchoring for a while already gives you the view people remember.
Three above all: company celebrations, weddings and stag or hen parties, and launches or team meetings that want to get out of the usual meeting room. The common factor is a large group that wants to be together somewhere nobody can leave halfway through.
That last part is usually what decides the booking. In a venue, people come and go and the group breaks up; on a boat, for three hours everyone is in the same place. For a company event that is worth more than any decoration.
No. The boat carries its own third-party insurance, which is compulsory in order to sail at all and is in order before every trip. That covers what it has to cover for the sailing and it is not an extra added to the bill.
What may need separate cover is the catering, the production or any equipment brought in by an outside company, because that is no longer the boat's. If the event is put on by a third party, it is worth clarifying beforehand who covers what.
Yes, within reason and by telling us beforehand. The usual things — a banner, balloons, a small photo backdrop — are no problem, and they go up in the time before boarding, not with people already on board.
What does not come aboard is anything that comes loose and ends up in the water: confetti, streamers, untied balloons. At sea that is not litter you sweep up later, it is litter that stays. And heavy material or large rigs have to be checked first, because they depend on the deck.
It is possible, but it stops being a standard booking. Leaving the group at a different marina means arranging a berth at the destination and getting the boat back to its base, so it is planned and quoted beforehand, never as you go.
For a company event the usual arrangement is simpler: you leave from and return to the same point, and the transfer by road is organised from there. With a hundred people, any change of logistics multiplies the problems by a hundred.
If it is not here, call us: two minutes on the phone and it is sorted.
Up to a hundred passengers. It is the highest-capacity boat in the fleet.
Events, company celebrations and groups that will not fit on an ordinary boat.
Yes, weeks ahead. The boat and the catering both have to be arranged; it is not a trip you improvise.
Quite. A catamaran that size barely moves, and there is plenty of room to sit outside, which is what works best.
Leave us your number and we will call you. In July and August it is worth booking ahead.
Puerto Deportivo de Fuengirola, local 367. You can drop in and see the boats before you book.
At no charge. Going out to see what happens is never worth it.
Life jackets for everyone on board, included in the price.
